Furniture construction

ABSTRACT

A cabinet or a piece of furniture, preferably cabinets in a wall system, wherein the side and top walls are made of laminated square elongated members and the joints of these wall members are curved and made up of short curved laminated members having cross section similar to the cross section of the elongated wall laminated members with the grain in the wall laminated members and in the curved joint members running longitudinally and substantially parallel.

O Umted States Patent 1 [1 1 3,744,868 Reiter July 10, 1973 FURNITURECONSTRUCTION 3,188,693 6/1965 Troyano 297 445 x Inventor: Joseph Refit",H255 Suzor Cote, 3,178,244 4/1965 Relss et al 312/245 X Mammal QuebecCanada 356 Primary Examiner-Casmir A. Nunberg [22] Filed: Apr. 7, 1972Attorney-Alan Swabey [21] Appl. No.: 242,092

[57] ABSTRACT 52] vs. C] 312/263, 312/7 R, 312/198,, A cabinet or apieee of furniture, Preferably cabinets in 312 245 237 2092 H a wallsystem, wherein the side and top walls are made [51] Int. Cl. A47t 5/08,A47b 47/04 of laminated square o ga bers and the joints [58] Field ofSearch 312/7, 198, 263, of these Wall members are fl/ed and made "Pshort 312 2 4; 297 440, 445; 217 5; 237 3 curved laminated membershaving cross section similar 1 2092 w 2092 220 73 74 to the crosssection of the elongated wall laminated members with the grain in thewall laminated members 5 R f n Cited and in the curved joint membersrunning longitudinally UNITED STATES PATENTS and bsmnuauyParallell95,87l 10/1877 Zuenkeler 217/65 5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures 1FURNITURE CONSTRUCTION BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 1. Field of Invention Thepresent invention relates to furniture and more particularly to woodfurniture construction.

2. Description of Prior Art In the construction of furniture, especiallyoffice and domestic furniture, it is as important to provide variedstyles as it is to provide a functional construction. In the quest tofind distinctive styles, it has been found difficult to construct woodfurniture with rounded joints. Normally, wood furniture is constructedhaving relatively squared joints. Itis practically impossible to providea joint at an edge of a cabinet or desk which is substantially rounded,that is, in the order of 2 inches and in which the grain matches withthe adjacent wood panels. In order to provide such a joint, it isrequired that a single elongated piece which has been properly curved belocated at the joint and attached to the adjacent panels. The grain insuch a piece runs normally transversely of the grain of the adjacentpanels and does not match with the panels.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION It is an aim of the present invention to provide awood furniture construction with rounded joints which is economical tomanufacture and in which the grain of the wood of the rounded joint runssubstantially in the same direction as the grain in the adjacent walls.

It is a further aim of the present invention to provide a system ofcabinets in a wall mounted system.

In a furniture construction in accordance with the present invention,there is provided a furniture module having at least a pair of wallpanels merging with a joint member, each wall panel having a grainrunning substantially perpendicular to the joint. The joint memberincludes a plurality of laminated curved members extending perpendicularto the joint and the grain in the laminated curved member runssubstantially parallel to the grain in the wall members.

In a preferred construction of the present invention, the wall panelsare made up of a plurality of elongated laminated members correspondingin cross section to the curved laminated members of the joint.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Having thus generally described thenature of the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanyingdrawings, showing by way of illustration, a pre ferred embodimentthereof, and in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of a typical wall system of cabinets;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a cabinet of the wall system;

FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of the cabinet;

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the cabinet shown in FIG. 3, partlyin cross section; and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a detail of thecabinet.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings, andparticularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a wall system, including railsmounted to a wall 8. A plurality of cabinets, such as an open cabinet12, liquor cabinet 14, a sliding-door cabinet and cabinet 18 formounting knick-knacks in which a plurality of elongated cabinets havebeen fastened side to side and mounted on the rails. Book shelves 16could also be provided on the rails 10. It is noted that all of thecabinets on the wall system have rounded joints which gives the cabineta distinctive appearance.

Referring now to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, a typical cabinet 12 is shown havinga top wall 22, a bottom wall 24 and side walls 26 and 28. The curvededges or joints are formed by joint members 30. In the open cabinet 12,shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, there is provided a shelf 32 mounted on shelfbracket 34.

The cabinet 12 is mounted to the rails 10 by means of rail bracket 36fastened to the inside side walls 26 and 28 of the cabinet including adownwardly facing open slot adapted to engage a pin 38 which is seatedin an aperture on the side edge of the rail 10. The rails 10 arefastened to the wall 8 by means of screws 40.

Each of the top wall 22, bottom wall 24, side walls 26 and 28 are madeup of laminated members 42a, 42b, 42c, 42dwhich are generally of squarecross section in the order of seven-eighths of an inch. The elongatedlaminated wall members 42a, 42b, 42c and 42d are cut with the grainextending longitudinally thereof so that the general pattern of thegrain, in a so-constructed wall panel, is in the longitudinal directionthereof. Each joint 30 is made up of curved laminated members 44a, 44b,44c, 44dof similar cross section to the wall members 42 and are cut suchthat the grain runs longitudinally or substantially in the samedirection as the grain of the wall members.

Such a construction is economical to manufacture in view of therelatively small sections of each piece which is laminated and thecurved sections can easily be cut with the grain in the longitudinaldirection because the thickness from a piece from which the curvedmember can be made is not normally more than an inch and one-half. Thegrain from the side of the member appears to run diagonally, such thatthe grain in the edge of adjacent wall panels appears to merge.

The appearance of a cabinet or desk constructed with these laminatedpieces, both in the wall panels and in the joint is also quite unique.

I claim:

1. A furniture construction comprising at least a pair of panel membersmerging with a corner joint member, the corner joint member beingexteriorly curved and having a longitudinal axis of curvature, thecorner joint member including a plurality of narrow laminated members,each extending in planes at right angles to the axis of curvature, thewood grain in the panel members and in the narrow laminated membersrunning substantially in the same direction at right angles to thecenter of curvature.

2. A furniture construction as defined in claim 1 wherein the width ofthe narrow laminated members does not exceed one and one-half inches.

3. A furniture construction as defined in claim I wherein the panelmembers are made up of a plurality of elongated laminated members eachextending in planes at right angles to the axis of curvature of thecorner joint member and the width of the panel laminated members doesnot exceed the width of the joint laminated members, the grain in eachindividual laminated member running longitudinally thereof substantiallyparallel to the grain in the longitudinal corresponding curved jointIaminatedmember.

wherein the cabinet is of the type which can be suspended from railsmounted to a vertical wall and include a bracket adapted to engagefastening means on the rails mounted to the walls.

1. A furniture construction comprising at least a pair of panel membersmerging with a corner joint member, the corner joint member beingexteriorly curved and having a longitudinal axis of curvature, thecorner joint member including a plurality of narrow laminated members,each extending in planes at right angles to the axis of curvature, thewood grain in the panel members and in the narrow laminated membersrunning substantially in the same direction at right angles to thecenter of curvature.
 2. A furniture construction as defined in claim 1wherein the width of the narrow laminated members does not exceed oneand one-half inches.
 3. A furniture construction as defined in claim 1wherein the panel members are made up of a plurality of elongatedlaminated members each extending in planes at right angles to the axisof curvature of the corner joint member and the width of the panellaminated members does not exceed the width of the joint laminatedmembers, the grain in each individual laminated member runninglongitudinally thereof substantially parallel to the grain in thelongitudinal corresponding curved joint laminated member.
 4. A furnitureconstruction as defined in claim 1, wherein there are four flat wallmembers and corner joint members joining each wall member, forming acabinet.
 5. A furniture construction as defined in claim 4, wherein thecabinet is of the type which can be suspended from rails mounted to avertical wall and include a bracket adapted to engage fastening means onthe rails mounted to the walls.